CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 317 km round trip from Alquézar - roughly 5 h 30 in the saddle. On the way it passes El Remosillo, Les Coves, Cova del Tabac and back through Les Coves. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Where the Vero canyon opens out above Alquézar, the land is partitioned into dry terraces that once held wheat and olives, and one of those fields or slopes carried the name Quizáns. The shelter listed as Quizáns I is the first of its group, a little over three kilometres from the village and twenty from Barbastro. It belongs to the family of painted shelters of the Aragonese Pre-Pyrenees, which are part of the Levantine art that UNESCO listed in 1998, and in this area it often means lines of tiny archers and animals in a dull red pigment.
Read the complete Quizáns I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quizáns I is where the day begins. Next is El Remosillo.
If you ride north from Barbastro toward Graus, the Ésera river eventually forces its way through a ridge of limestone, and the result is the Congosto de Olvena, a short, deep gorge with the road squeezed between rock and water. Up on the cliffs around here are rock shelters with prehistoric paintings, and El Remosillo is one of the best known in this corner of Aragón, between Estadilla, Graus and Fonz.
Read the complete El Remosillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Remosillo comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Les Coves.
The western edge of Catalonia, around Lleida, is fruit country. Irrigation canals bring water from the Pyrenean rivers to a broad, flat plain of orchards growing apples, pears and peaches, laid out in neat lines that stretch to the horizon. Les Coves lies in this area, close to the Aragonese border, between Alfarràs, Albelda and Algerri, where the valley of the Noguera Ribagorçana spills out of the hills and onto the plain.
Read the complete Les Coves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Les Coves. Next is Cova del Tabac.
Above the village of Camarasa, where the Segre comes out of the pre-Pyrenean hills onto the plain of Lleida, a cave in the limestone holds some of the most interesting rock paintings in Catalonia. The Cova del Tabac, the tobacco cave, is a wide shelter with schematic paintings, simplified human figures, animals and symbols in red, and it is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art on the Iberian Peninsula. A short walk leads up from the road to the shelter, which also offers a fine view over the valley, and on a clear day the Pyrenees rise white on the northern horizon.
Read the complete Cova del Tabac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova del Tabac, about halfway. Next is back through Les Coves.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Coves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Les Coves sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through El Remosillo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Remosillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through El Remosillo comes up about 270 km into the recorded legs. Next is Quizáns I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quizáns I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quizáns I closes the day.
Quizáns I → El Remosillo is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Remosillo → Les Coves is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les Coves → Cova del Tabac is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Tabac → back through Les Coves is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les Coves → back through El Remosillo is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through El Remosillo → Quizáns I is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.